24 August 2017

Little Barrie - Death Express

This
review is so overdue, so I will get on with it straight away. Little Barrie
have been bouncing around the underground for fifteen years, they have been
slowly making a name for themselves. They were the backing band for Paul
Weller on his 22 Dreams album, they have supported the likes of Brian
Jones Town Massacre, Primal Scream, The Stone Roses and many more.
Recently, their music (which forms the bases of this album) has been used for
the TV show Better Call Saul, the spin-off of the hit TV Breaking Bad.
This has thrown them even further into the limelight, giving them more
exposure and now they have released their fifth album Death Express.
They are shortly about to head out on the road in the UK to support this album,
but how do the album sound? Well, lets find out.....

01
- Rejection

This
is a twenty-five second introduction track, if you blink than you would miss
it. So, onwards to the first proper track.

02
- I.5.C.A. (Tommy Forrest Mix)

When
I first heard this song, I thought I had already heard it before. It
sounds like it could have been used in an advert for an American light beer or
a detective show when everyone is in slow-mo, moody poses and looking like
skeletons to the real world. It is very stylistic, a little bit hipster
to be honest, but not in a bad way.

03
- Copter

This
song is so stylistic, so vogue and hip that it could get into any club without
a velvet rope blocking its way. It is a good number, not my usual cup of
tea but it is not offensive either. It is still something that feels as
if it is designed for the big screen or an advert that has nothing to do with
the subject matter at hand, it is a cool little song.

04
- Golden Age

We
are only four tracks into this album and I am already wondering if this album
has a sequel, the music on "Golden Age" just lends itself perfectly
to the cellular world. I love this one, it has spy drama wrote all over
it and it oozes style once more.

05
- New Disease

"New
Disease" is following the same formula as the first four songs on this
album, it is fashionable and it makes all the right noises. But the pace
is beginning to wear a little thin here and there is still fourteen songs to
go, I think this one could have been placed in the bargain bin.

06
- You Won't Stop Us

As
if reading my mind, the band pick up pace on "Yon Won't Stop Us"
as it finally picks up the pace, but it does not sacrifice the overall tone of
the band by doing so. It is a funky number, very psychedelic and you will
either love it or hate it. Personally, I like it and this is despite
myself as I usually do not like this sort of thing. But this one is
working for me, much to my own surprise.

07
- Count to Ten

For
an album that does not have a lot of pace, it does not take much to stop the
flow of the record in its tracks. "Count to Ten" halts the
record with a bang and it feels as if I have heard this all before on this
record all ready. The fade out ending jars everything as it was just
starting to gain some sort of pace and the guitars felt like it was heading in
something that resembled a direction. Frustrating.

08
- Love or Love

There
is something so familiar with this band, especially with this song as
well. It just feels like it is designed for a by gone era and I am watching
it from the future. It is a good number, one that will have a lot of
people dancing when they hear it, but I feel a little cold whenever I listen to
it.

09
- (Nothing Will) Eliminate (Edit)

This
song has been editing down to three minutes, twenty-six seconds. When I
am listening to it, it is one of the few songs on the album which I would have
like to have seen extended to a flat-out jam session version. It feels like
Dinosaur Jr. have been asked to turn the distortion down and they are jamming
with Can. This could have been a world beater, it is really a shame it
has been edited.

10
- The Dodge

An
instrumental song that is just under a minute in length and it is also a song
that could have easily been drawn out into another jam. I think they need
to let it go (no, not in a Frozen style) and see where the song takes
them. If this was part of a song edited for a TV show, that would be
fine. But I feel like I am missing another six or seven minutes worth of
music here.

11
- Bill$ House

Another
instrumental track from Little Barrie here, once again it has a cinematic
feeling and it feels lost without a reference point to me. It is simple
enough and a good piece, but you feel like you have come in halfway through a
jamming session which has a lot more music before and after the event.

12 - Molotov Cop

Now we are back, the band have stopped the instrumentals and it feels like they have been
unleashed from a lead that has been keeping them in check. There is a
wild and fierce feeling to the song as it gains momentum, it has an edge which has
not been so apparent so far on this album. It is the perfect example of
Little Barrie at their best, they sound on fire on this song and it is a
brilliant number.

13 - Vulture Swarm

We find Little Barrie in moody form on "Vulture Swarm", it is
full of strange sounds, bizarre noises and a frantic display on the drum kit as
the band add a slice of psychedelic mystery to the album. This is another
side of the band I wish they would explore, it is really interesting and I reckon
a live jam where they are going nuts on this would be fantastic.

14 - Produkt

There is a heavy tone to the bass on this song, a strange rumbling that gives
this song an edge on this album, it is part of a brilliant trilogy of number
that showcase the best parts of this band. "Produkt" is a song
that improves with each spin, it gains depth with each listen and that is a
rare beast on this album. I wish this was the norm on the album, this is
the sound of a band that I could get interested in.

15 - Compressed Fun

This song is another one that feels like it could have been extended, allowed
to flow whichever way it desired and turned into a jam of infinite
length. But it ends up beings stunted and ends as it starts to gain my
interest, which is a shame as it has one of the best riffs on the album.

16 - Ultraviolet Blues

I am listening to this song with a mixture of awe and frustration; it is
brilliant, but why did it take so long to get to the point of the song, the rub if you will. The song
sounds like a messed up version of The Charlatans, mixed with a 60's explosion
of psychedelic rock and noise. As it progresses, you can hear the band
start to hit a groove and then it abruptly ends. That is not what this
band should be about, but that is the current state of things.

17 - Sonic Lodge

Another short interlude, over and done in thirty seconds and it could have been
used for a short scene in a TV show. It feels wasted on here sadly, so it
is onwards and upwards.

18 - Death Express

The title track of this album is also the longest one as well, it is allowed to
grow and to evolve into something more than a tight single format that has
hampered a lot of this album. It does not feel as if it is five minutes
long and it too feels like it could have gone further as well. I really
like this song, but once again, it could been so much more (which seems to be the story of this album).

19 - Shoulders Up, Eyes Down

We finally reach the ending of this record with "Shoulders Up, Eyes
Down", which goes back to the earlier style of the album. It is
too short for its own good, it takes a while to reach its pinnacle and it is
over before it starts to gain momentum. It feels like an apt ending for
the album, but not one that I think the band was Little Barrie's original
intention.

I
do not think I have heard an album so stylistically focused in such a long
time, it is just so concentrated and moody that it makes me feel scruffy and in need
of a trip to my tailors just to listen to it. It reminds me a lot of the Eels, Bran Van 3,000
and Cake, that Alternative Rock of the 90's that seemed to come out of America
and rule the airwaves. There is also an Ocean's Eleven feeling to the
music as well, as if this was produced by David Holmes himself. I like
the sound; the production is crisp and they sound tight as a nut. There
are a few slight issues with the album though. Firstly, there is the
length of the album - it is nineteen tracks long, there is a few of these that
could have been cut off all together, or they could have been released as a new
EP. The time length is not an issue though, as I love long songs. What is the problem is the constant changing in directions, the painfully short, bite size, easy pickings length of the songs that damages any fluidity that the songs could have obtained. Because of this, there is a feeling of over consummation to the
album, a feeling of gluttony by default and it gives it a bloated
afterglow. The second half of the album is much better than the
beginning, but by that point it is all over in some ways. It is sadly a
case of too much deadwood and wasted opportunities on this record. Also,
the band need to let the songs flow and not just focus on the three to four-minute
mark. They could have created a better album with eight songs, than a good album
(almost average) with nineteen, which is a shame as they sound great and it is
could have easily been so much more. However, at the end of the day, this is a
film soundtrack in the waiting and I think if these guys and Edgar Wright or
Quentin Taranto ever get together to make a soundtrack, they will make cellular
history. I really like their sound and I would love to be able to listen
to them in the rehearsal studio when they are working on a number, I just wish
they could relax a little and kick out the jams MF'ers!

6
out of ten - Now I see where you were going, but it is not quite there.

Welcome to the final round-up review of 2017! Similar to the Round-Up posts I put up earlier in the year, I’m going to be posting some bull...

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Album scoring system

0 - This is proof there is no deity1 - You're really are touching the bottom of the barrel with this one2 - If only there was some quality control3 - It could have been a bit better4 - Well it's alright, but still......5 -Not for everyone but played well6 - Now I see where you were going, but it's not quite there7 - This is good and well worth a check8 - Oh, now you have my attention and maybe my money, time and heart9 - Almost perfect....Almost10 - This is proof there is a deity(For albums that are too crazy to be marked)Crazy Cat symbol - This album cannot be marked, so here is a box of kittens

Singles/EP Marking System

0 - Only to be listened to by people bless with the gift of being deaf1 - Not so much on the bad that it is bottom of the barrel, but it can see the stuff down there2 - Not bad, not good - so average it is Zen3 - Decent, getting there4 - This is really good, well worth checking out5 - I wish I had extra ears to love this more(For Singles/EPs that are too crazy to mark)Crazy Cat symbol - This release cannot be marked, so here is a box of kittens